Research Paper
Evaluating the Importance of Natural
Rubber in the Plantation Economy of
Kerala
Volume : 4 | Issue : 7 | July 2015 • ISSN No 2277 - 8179
Economics
KEYWORDS : Agriculture Income, Trends,
Area, Production, Productivity
Rajesh R
ABSTRACT
Among the major plantation crops, natural rubber occupies a pivotal role in terms of cropping area as well as
in generating significant share in agriculture income of the state. In this context this article tries to understand the
importance of natural rubber in the plantation economy of Kerala by looking in to therelative importance of natural rubber in terms of area,
production and productivity trends of natural rubber in Kerala vis-à-vis to the all India performance of natural rubber. The article also tries
to evaluate the contribution of agriculture in the state GDP as well as the growth in agriculture income over the years while also attempts to
capture district wise variation if any in the area and production of natural rubber in Kerala.
I Introduction
Plantation crops like rubber, cardamom and pepper as well
as paddy, coconut occupies a predominant portion of the total
cropping area and thereby contributing enormously to the agriculture income of state. Among the major agriculture crops,
natural rubber occupies a pivotal role in terms of cropping area
and share in agriculture income. In this context this article tries
to understand the importance of natural rubber in the plantation economy of Kerala by looking in to the relative importance
of natural rubber in terms of area, production and productivity
trends of natural rubber in Kerala vis-à-vis to the all India performance of natural rubber. The article also tries to evaluate
the contribution of agriculture in the state GDP as well as the
growth in agriculture income over the years while also attempts
to capture district wise variation if any in the area and production of natural rubber in Kerala.
II Contribution of Agriculture to Kerala State GDP
During 2011-12, the contribution from primary, secondary and
tertiary sectors to the GSDP at constant prices (2004-05) was
9.48 per cent, 20.22 percent and 70.30 per cent respectively. At
current prices, the primary, secondary and tertiary sectors contributed 15.11 per cent, 21.05 per cent and 63.22 per cent respectively to the GSDP during 2011-12 (Economic Review, 2013)
Even though the share of agriculture in the total state GDP declined, agriculture income experienced an increase. Agriculture
income in the state increased from 10781.3 crore in 1990-91 to
1220.5 crore in 2011-12 thereby increasing 13 percent during the
past 12 years. At the same time the share of agriculture to SDP
declined sharply from 23.14 percent in 1990-91 to 7.17 in 201112. Period after 2000-01 witnessed steep decline in the share
of agriculture in the total SDP of the state. Agriculture share in
total SGDP declined almost 60 percent during the period from
2000-01 to 2011-12 whereas agriculture income during the period from 1990-91 to 2011-12 showcases a positive trend.
Figure 2.1 Agriculture Income in Kerala and Share of Agriculture Sector of Kerala to SDP of Kerala
Source: Agriculture Statistics, 2005 to 2013
Economic Review, Various Issues
This trend is the outcome of an increase in the agriculture commodity prices and because of the increase in productivity irrespective of the fall in area of agricultural commodities. In the
case of the share of real agricultural income to SDP reveals the
expansion of industrial and service sector of the economy and
also change in the occupational structure of the economy. These
structural and occupational changes in the economy are good
signs while looking through the prism of development. But the
sustainability of an economy with too much reliance on service
sector oriented growth remains a question mark in the political
and economic discourse of the state.
III Income Share of Main Agriculture Crops in Kerala
The composition of various crops in the total agriculture income
of the state also witnessed some drastic shift during the period.
The period witnessed the emergence of rubber replacing coconut as the principal income generating crop in the state.
Table 2.2 Income Share of Main Agriculture Crops in Kerala
Source: Agriculture Statistics, Various Issues
Fall in production, increasing vulnerability to diseases and fall in
price of coconut resulted in the fall in the income share of coconut in the state. Share of coconut in the total agriculture income
of the state declined from 65 percent in 2004-05 to 44.73 percent
in 2011-12.
During the corresponding period the share of rubber in the total
agriculture income of the state increased from 28.65 percent in
2004-05 to almost 50 percent in 2011-12. Increase in area of cultivation, higher production and productivity and increase in the
price of rubber in the commodity market played an important
role in the emergence of rubber as the principal income generating crop in the state.
IV Area-Production-Productivity trends of Natural Rubber
This section looks into the area production and productivity
trends in Kerala in comparison to the all India performance. An
attempt is made to look into district wise variations in terms of
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Volume : 4 | Issue : 7 | July 2015 • ISSN No 2277 - 8179
the above mentioned trends.
V Relative Contribution of Various States in terms of area
Even though the area of natural rubber in traditional rubber
growing states like Kerala and Tamil Nadu increased during the
period, there is a visible fall in the share traditional rubber growing states in the total area of rubber production in the state.
Table 2.3 Percentage share of area of natural rubber in various states in India
Research Paper
In the other non-traditional rubber growing states including
Karnataka, Goa, Maharashtra also the area of rubber plantations
increased substantially during the period from 2000-01 to 201011. During the period the area of plantation in these regions increased from 22710 Ha in 2000-01 to 43880 Ha.
Trends in Area, production and Productivity of Rubber in Kerala
vis-à-vis India Area and production of rubber plantation in the
state increased manifold during the period 1990-91 to 2012-13.
Area of natural rubber plantation in the state witnessed a uniform growth throughout the period from 1990-91 to 2012-13
even though the annual growth rate after 1997-98 remained below 1 percent most of the time. In terms of area, the 407821 Ha
in 1990-91 to 54500 Ha in 2012-13 thereby experiencing a growth
of 33 percent during the period. Total area of rubber plantation
was 539565 in 2011-12.
Table 2.5 Area and Production of Rubber in Kerala from 199091 to 2012-13
Source : Rubber Board,2012
Share of Kerala in total area of rubber in the country fell from
84.3 percent in 2000-01 to 75.1 percent in 2010-11. Share of natural rubber in Tamil Nadu reduced from 3.3 percent in 2000-01
to 2.8 percent in 2010-11. In the case of north east region comprising of Tripura, Meghalaya and Assam, the share in total area
of rubber plantation in the country increased remarkably from
8.4 percent in 2000-01 to 15.8 percent 2010-11. During the period
from 2000-01 to 2010-11, there was an increase of 88 percent in
the area of rubber plantation in north east region.
VI Share of Natural Rubber in India –Traditional v/s Non
Traditional Regions
Area of natural rubber in the country increased significantly during the period from 2000-01 to 2010-11. Kerala and Tamil Nadu
falls under the category of traditional regions whereas states
like Assam, Tripura, Meghalaya, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Goa
falls under the category of non-traditional regions. In the traditional rubber growing states like Kerala and Tamil Nadu the area
of natural rubber increased from 493075 Ha in 2000-01 to 553995
Ha in 2010-11. Among the two states, in Kerala alone the total
area increased from 474365 Ha in 2000-01 to 534228 in 2010-11.
Table 2.4 Area Hectare in Traditional and Non Traditional
Regions-India
Source: Calculated from Rubber Board Statistics, Various Issues
In terms of production phenomenal growth was witnessed during the period. Production numbers increased 160 percent from
307521 in 1990-91 to 800050 in 2012-13. While looking deeper
in to figure, it is visible that there has been a steady increase in
production of natural rubber over the years. The state was able
to achieve this high growth even though in the year 2007-08 and
2009-10 the production growth fell in to negative zone. Introduction of high yielding variety of natural rubber and more scientific nature of farming may be attributed as the main reason for
the increase in rubber production.
State experienced an annual average growth of 1.33 percent in
terms of area and 4.52 percent in terms of production output
during the period from 1990-91 to 2012-13. Annual growth rate
of production increased almost 6.59 percent during the ten years
from 1990-91 to 2000-01 whereas in the next twelve years from
2001-02 to 2012-13 the annual growth rate declined more than
half to 3.16 percent.
Table 2.6 Area and Production Rubber in India from 1990-91
to 2012-13
Source: Calculation based on Rubber Board Statistics, 2005 to
2012
In the north east region, considered as the major non-traditional
rubber growing states like Tripura, Meghalaya and Assam had a
significant increase in the area of rubber plantation during the
period. The area of rubber plantation in the states increased
from 46885 Ha in 2000-01 to 113685 Ha in 2010-11.
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Research Paper
Volume : 4 | Issue : 7 | July 2015 • ISSN No 2277 - 8179
Source : Calculated from Rubber Board Statistics, Various Issues
Taking into consideration the Indian scenario, similar positive
trends are visible in terms of growth of area and production
of natural rubber during the period from 1990-91 to 2012-13.
In terms of area, rubber sector in the country increased from
475083 Ha in 1990-91 to 757520 Ha in 2012-13. There was an
increase of 59 percent in the total area of rubber plantation in
the country during the period from 1990-91 to 2012-13.The total
area of rubber plantation witnessed 34.6 percent growth during
the period from 2000-01 to 2012-13 whereas during the period
from 1990-91 to 1999-00, the rubber sector witnessed only 17
percent growth in area of plantations.
In terms of production, country experienced substantial increase
in output from 329615 MT in 1990-91 to 913700 MT in 2012-13.
Overall during the period rubber produced increased 177 percent. When we sub divide the growth in to two periods from
1990-91 to 1999-00 and from 2000-01 to 2012-13, the figure explains that production increased more than 88 percent during
1990-91 to 1999-00, whereas during the period from 2000-01 to
2012-13 the percentage of growth declined around half to about
45 percent.
The figures are quite significant in the context that the area of
rubber plantation substantially increased during the period from
2000-01 to 2012-13 and production increased considerably during 19990-91 to 1999-00. But overall the average growth of area
and production during the period from 1990-91 to 2012-13 stood
at 2.14 percent and 3.06 percent respectively.
Table 2.7 Productivity of Rubber in Kerala and India from
1990-91 to 2012-2013
in the agriculture economy of the state in terms of acreage and
production. Except Alappuzha, Wayanad and Thrissur almost all
other districts are comprise a decent share in the production of
rubber in the state. Kottayam, Ernakulum and Pathanamtitta are
the major rubber producing districts in the state.
Table 2.8 Share of districts in Kerala in terms of Area and
Production of Natural Rubber
Source: Agriculture Statistics, Economic review-Various Issues
Kottayam district leads in the state in terms of acreage and
production of rubber. Around 21.78 percent of the total rubber
plantations in the state belong to Kottayam district in 2012-13.
Kottayam is followed by Ernakulam and Pathanamtitta districts
with an area of 11 percent and 9.37 percent of the total rubber
plantations in the state. With respect to production also Kottayam comes first with 21.78 percent of the total rubber production
in the state followed by Ernakulam and Pathanamtitta districts
during the corresponding period. Both these districts together
produce 21.5 percent of the total rubber production in the state
during 2012-13.
Table 2.9 District wise Productivity of Natural Rubber Productivity in Kg/Ha
Source : Calculated from Rubber Board Statistics, Various Issues
Productivity of natural rubber in Kerala increased from 1079
kg in 1990-91 to 1903 in 2012-13. Most of the period from 199091 to 2012-13, per hectare productivity of natural rubber in the
state was below the national average. In the year 2011-12 and
2012-13 the productivity of natural rubber in the state surpassed
the national productivity numbers. Productivity in the state
stood at 1931 kg and 1903 kg in the year 2011-12 and 2012-13
respectively whereas national productivity of rubber during the
period was 1841 kg and 1813 kg respectively. Introduction of hybrid variety of rubber and more extensive practice of scientific
farming are the major reasons for the increase in the productivity of rubber
In the last 22 years from 1990-91 to 2012-13, the average productivity of natural rubber in the country stood at 1576 kg whereas
Kerala’s productivity figure was around 1317 kg during the corresponding period.
VII District Wise Share of Natural Rubberin Kerala
The section looks in to the relative performance of various districts in the state in terms of area, production and productivity of natural rubber. Rubber occupies a predominant position
REFERENCE
Source: Agriculture Statistics, Various Issues
During 2010-11, the per hectare yield of rubber is the highest in
Pathanamtitta district with an average yield of 1579 kg per hectare whereas in Kottayam the productivity per hectare stood at
1514 kg. Lowest productivity of natural rubber is in Wayanad
district with per hectare yield of 894 kg. State average of productivity is also significantly on the higher side with 1442 kg per
hectare.
Area, production and productivity of natural rubber both national average as well as state’s performance has improved substantially over the years. Improved variety of crops and modern
agriculture practices has improved the productivity of these
commodities in the case of Kerala as well as all India level. Low
labour absorption and relatively better price for natural rubber
has resulted in the increase in area and production of natural
rubber in the state. Overall trends indicate that the area, production and productivity of natural rubbershowcase a promising
picture and the growth of natural rubber sector is pivotal to the
agrarian economy of Kerala.
Economic Review (2013) Kerala State Planning Board, Government of Kerala | Rubber Board Statistics (2014) Rubber Board, Government of India
Agriculture Statistics (2013) Government of Kerala
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